Should You Ever FOLD POCKET KINGS Preflop?? 

Have you ever folded pocket kings preflop? Be honest.

Little did Doug know, he'd be folding KK pre just 7 days later at the Lodge lol

If I remember correctly, in the Upswing Lab, Fried Mulders has a pre-flop module in which he recommends folding KK pre in the following situations just 100 BBs deep. UTG open, MP 3bet, KK 4bet (from any position), UTG jam, MP jam. That MP jam is so strong staring into an uncapped 4 bet range and an uncapped 5bet shove range, that KK is not doing very well. MP's range (theoretically) is only AA and KK and blocking KK, makes this a fold. This is also true if instead of UTG and MP, it's MP and CO. Also, in deep stack, KK is a fold to a 6bet (or even a 5bet sometimes). All this is theory and most situations are unique.

I've never folded KK preflop in a cash game. I've had people fold it to me 3 times that I know of, and it was a bad fold all 3 times.

If you need practice folding KK, just play PLO for about a week.

Johnnie's reason for folding from his vlog#1... "when an Asain Hollywoods and shoves pre it's ALWAYS aces...."

90% of the time, when someone folds KK pre, it's cause they don't have another bullet to reload with.

Your fold against Helmuth was the best fold I've ever seen

6 combinations of aces, 2 combinations of AKs, 6 combinations of AKo, if I'm not mistaken. Calling a shove over the top with kings is thus largely going to come down to the opponent you're playing against: * Would they make this move with AKo? That puts enough combinations in there that they're more likely to not have aces than do, so you call. * Would they only do it with AKs or aces? Probably a fold then, as you block two of the AKs, meaning it's more likely they have aces. * If they'd do it with any other hand, you have to call. So pretty much, the only time you're folding is if you think they'd only do it with AKs or AA. As for a random player you've never played with before? I think it's more likely than not they'd be willing to do it with AKo/QQ or worse (from the POV of a player with AKo, they block an ace and king making it less likely you have AA or KK, and even if you have QQ - or worse, KK - they at least have the ace out), so yeah, there's a reason this is almost always a call even if there's the rare occasion that you're coolered.

"And you determine if you fold." Me, in every scenario: "LOL KK, LETS GO"

1. Nope, wouldn't throw away before flop. 2. Yes. 3. Nope, i'd play. 4. Nope, i'd play. 5. Yes, fold.

If you get them after going to piss in a home game, it’s a prank, and a fold can be really stylish.

What about Sam Barnharts pocket kings fold pre at WSOP?

how about asking the big question: should you ever fold AA preflop?

Jackie's fold was the only one I'd probably fold as well. For all the others, if you got it, you got it.

I always shove fake aces ( A4 ) because I get over excited and don't know how to play poker, which is why I'm sending this comment via a prepaid phone.

One thing I will say about hand 2 is by putting ourselves in that spot we can almost for sure take AK and suited aces out of our opponents range if they are capable. When they jam overtop they should realize they have very low bluffing equity with only about a 2x raise

7:06 is literally the honest commentary I'm here to watch!

I am generally in the "GTO" corner but Ill say this: The fold against Jennifer Tilly is 100% correct

Done it once deep in a MTT in a fourway all in.

Eubank Jr is a pro boxer, and he's also friends with Ryuske.... Ryuske mentioned it on one of the lives. Im sure Eubank knows where he is lol

The first example is knowing the Player. Solid fold.

I love my boy Doug but I'll throw some shade just for fun : "Here is a sample of 5 hands, selected for their variety and entertainment value. Therefore, you should base your strategy around this. More on strategy and game theory in my masterclass course. Sincerely, Doug"

once, to old man greg at isle of capri biloxi circa 2006. 8 handed, he had about 400 bbs, i covered. folds to him on the button. he opens, i 3bet sb, bb fold. he 4bet, i 5 bet, he jams, i fold. he didn't show.

The only time I'd ever fold KK pre would be in a satellite near the payout period. Outside of that, if they have AA, GG

In hand #1 Tilly bet 23k into 2.1k, meaning you only need to call with like 10% of your three-betting range to be unexploitable. Even from a GTO perspective only calling Aces there should be fine, right?

Great content Doug, can u do the math for folding vs calling for all 5 videos and see if it's a positive play or negative play?

In a cash game, I would never fold Cowboys, unless it’s been 4 or 5 bet all around. In a tourney, folding them is more feasible a play for the same reasons or for ICM implications.

I once folded KK versus a preflop min-raise from Phillip Hellmuth.

Next, can you do a video of the reverse? Tournament, final table, I had AA, 2nd/9 in stack size. Action to my right goes all-in with JJ @ ~25k, I go all-in over the top for ~100k total, and there's stack #1 sitting on KK. I know what he has. I want to show him my aces... I all but directly tell him, what my hand is... he knew. he KNEW! but called anyway and flopped the K for a set. I got 9th. 8th paid. Still mad.

Trick to see if someone is playing with 100% of themselves: Folding Pocket Kings Pre.

Should You Ever FOLD POCKET KINGS Preflop?? What's up, guys. Doug Polk here. No. Thanks for watching. Please like, subscribe and leave a comment below.

never play off a stack that is so big you fold kings pre and also just never fold kings pre.

A lot depends on the player type. Some OMC's will never 4/5 bet preflop with anything other than K's or A's.

be it wrong or be it 100% right, cash game or tourney... i just cannot fold kings pre flop. yes, of course ive fallen victim to this quite a few times!... BUT!.. i can happily say the last time this happened to me it was in a tourny weeks ago and i flopped a king ( she slow played AA ) n got a full double up... she was not amused

so funny cause earlier for the first time ever i folded kings preflop cause i was AFK in the bathroom, i came back to see the end of the hand play out and someone had basically hit trip 5's on the flop then turned quad 5's all in vs two others the person with quad 5's had 52o preflop so happy i was afk for that lol

my record for folding QQ preflop is awful. like 1/6 times correct fold when they have JJ or AK call all in when they roll over AA or KK

The problem with folding KK is there’s a non zero spaz factor from your opponents. You never know when they might just be tilting, or think that you’re overbluffing and decide to take a stand to shut you down. For that reason he said we must always get it in

The only ones I got right were player based which I guess speaks to this being a read-based decision, fold vs tilly, call bill klein

When playing 1-3 live, if you get 4 bet preflop it's AA a lot of the time especially if they have more than 100bb in their stack, 4 betting is super rare in live low stakes

Way back in 2004 I was playing a 2-4NL cash game at Stars with $400 on the table, there was a guy in the seat right before me who was raising every hand and laughing at me folding every hand because I was playing super-nitty. I picked up KK in the cutoff seat and he made it 19 to go. I smooth-called with my KK and the button folded. The small blind then pushed for 180. It folded around to the guy who was making fun of how nitty I was, and he jammed for the full 400. I reasoned that he absolutely knew I had to have a huge hand to call the initial raise, and that he basically at that point would put me on AA or KK. He had to have AA because if he didn't, he would fear that I had it. I folded my KK and he showed AA. The small blind had JJ.

A guy named Fishman who was the "Loose Cannon" in the TV-Show was folding AA preflop and was dogding quads.

I think that if you have a lot of information on your opponent and can place their hand on Aces, well more power to you. but I'm usually going broke or at least seeing a flop with Kings.

Fwiw the all-in in my hand was for $16K. The stack sizes were wrong.

About 25 years ago Card Player magazine had a long article regarding folding AA Pre-Flop. This was pre-Moneymaker so it wasn’t too exciting. FUN FACT: KK vs AK off -an Ace hits the flop or turn card 99.76% of the time 😎🤓😉😉😉😉

On my last day in vegas recently I had KK 3 times in 30 mins. I got felted 3 times, twice against AA. On the third hand I just knew but still made the all in call pre for comedy value and the distant hope I’d be wrong.

The hand where multiple straddles are happening (9:17 ish) I wish I knew more about the game and how it was playing. Are these mandatory straddles? Are the players used to these stakes? Saying 140bb effective vs. 1400bb effective is very different. Sure, you could argue technically you're 140bb in this specific hand, but it's a little more in-depth than that, especially when it comes to live poker. After looking over it again, I dont think this 25, 50, 100 straddle is a normal thing considering the average stack of everyone else is 4.5k, so unless there's something I know about this guy jamming, I'm probably folding KK here too.

I've never folded kings preflop. Some times you do run into aces and sure your behind, but, your also not drawing dead. I don't think its worth folding kings basically ever.

I did fold them once. I had 2500 (and it was most of my roll) on the table in a 2/5 10 rock game. I three bet and then there was a 4 and a 5 bet from two different opponents. They got it all in with QQ and AK... and I would have flopped a set to lock up the win.

I’m never folding Kings preflop! Even if I’m all but sure that they have Aces! They have to show me! Besides, even if they do have the Aces, there’s still 5 cards to see 👀

Doug, when do we analyze the pre flop fold of AA with Fishman in The Big Game so we can say 1 for 1 of correctly folding aces pre to flopped quads? 😂😂 We need more people to start folding them pre-flop to balance out their ranges or something. 😏

Folded Kings preflop once in a cash game. Never again. 1/2 live I was playing wild for hours open raising to $25 and playing blind much of the time. This old man was waiting to catch me and came over the top all-in and I knew he had AA. Folded and he showed QQ. Never again. My wild play had opened up his preflop shoving range.

Someone limp reraised me 8x over my already large raise. I almost folded there but I tank called. J83r board and they open jam 2x pot. I snap fold KK face up and they showed AA. So close to making the greatest fold pre. I just didn’t think this person was capable of making bluffs like that. I’ve folded QQ and JJ multiple times to single reraises and have been right every time.

"and by working tirelessly I mean hiring someone and paying them to do it for me." Love the deadpan humor Doug😂

The only one I said I’d have folded was Jacky v Bill v Garrett. So deep and cold calling a 5 bet doesn’t seem very appealing. Not to mention it was a UTG open.

Pretty sure Jacky's fold is correct in theory. Tight position multiway battle, you sometimes can just play with AA. Some preflop sims even fold KK at 100bb (200nl rake) facing multiway action, so at 800bb deep it's not out of the questions.

It's just a mindset issue people expect to win all the time with AA and KK while the truth is that you win most of the times and lose sometimes. Still gotta put all your money in even if you lose it all sometimes.

Yep. 1 time. Final table of a nightly local tournament. 4 handed. UTG player is table short. I played with him every week for years. He opens to 2 BB. Im +1 and raise KK to 6.5. Folds to UTG who goes all in for about 13 BB. I go to fold and one player tells the dealer to hold my cards and calls the floor over. He tells the floor he suspects collusion. He knows the THREE of us road together and I'm dumping chips to my friend the short so we can knock him out and chop. Well we all did ride together. So the floor looks at my cards (discretely) and says "well?" . At this point UTG says WTF did you folds kings? And he tables his AA face up. A crowd had gathered by that point. A nice roar went up and the floor asked the other player if he had any more questions. Naturally, 10 minutes later the 4th was gone and we three chopped. When you know you know.

15:22 "The poket Jacks!!!" Doug enjoying getting us on the wrong foot again!

3rd hand is more then 140BB effective no? Says game is 5/5/10. This is player dependent, but 12k to win 15k right? Lets have a look at range calc 57% against AA,kk,Qq, aks, ak, math says its a fold this time. Maybe i should have ran math vs tilly too. Looking like 1, 3 folds. 2nd hand must call from back pf r. Damn even wirh jj in there its still a fold. The power of allin pf. Def need to be looking to get lil wilder wirh suited Ax pf in full ring games.

Man, I've gotten everyone wrong that I didn't remember lmfaoo

Fantastic review of these hands.

No, best fold I've done is AQ pre-flop in position against an aggro player. He flashed AK, called me a name, and I got some applause.

I would have folded 2nd hand only, and would have lost it all the 1st hand and made a lot of money hands 3-5 I also remember a school teacher folding kings once, he was a "loose cannon". But he was up tremendously and just wanted to stay that way

Rick Salomon vs John Morgan in super high roller bowl cash game; folded KK correctly v AA pre flop.

When playing in smaller games, 1/3$-5/10$ KK pre flop facing a 4 bet out of nearly any position is an automatic 5-bet shove. If you’re 9 ways it’s 4.32% likely that an opponent has AA, even less likely shorter handed. If they have AA and you get stacked that’s just life, there are so many hands you get to fold and take the pot or beat that 4 bet pre. It’s obviously different when playing high stakes, just wanted to put it out there for the homies grinding (doesn’t apply to the super NITs)

"And here is...a different venue"😂😂

Doug is it almost not worth it anymore five betting all in with aces anymore? Flatting them seems to be the more profitable play. Of course it’s situation dependent but when extremely deep it’s almost worth flatting the four bet with the aces. Thoughts ?

Doug I have BREAAAAAKING NEWS ! Pepe is my old backer for the sketchy ass home game scene in LA where they rake 125 cap 10% every hand. Also Pepe owes tons of money and Ryan F just let's these people on the streams whils simultaneously stopping grinders like me and many others.

I got someone to fold QQ when I was bluffing with 27 in a cash game once lol but I don't suggest doing that. It was pre flop they folded too. No flop.

If an opponent jams with a decent stack after following up to a 3 or 4 bet feels like value betting and getting excited once they're raised....Stupid tables where everyone's 4 betting preflop for no reason as well..KK really isn't worth going out on against 2 suited connecters and pocket jacks

Before spoilers: Hand 1: never folding against the Tilly donkey. Hand 2: 100bb, committing 40% of your stack and then fold is straight up horrible. Never folding either. Hand 4: think Francisco is nitty enough to fold here. Hand 5: never fold against garrett and a billionaire So overall, not folding

In some parallel universe there is an alternate Doug Polk with a 10 second video consisting only of Doug yelling, "DON'T FOLD POCKET KINGS PRE"

Sometimes, it's just your time die - Doug Polk.

Once I busted out and reload. Immediately got pocket KK and went all in and lose it all again to pocket AA 😮

You missed out on the epilogue from that PokerGo hand. They ran the board out anyway and there was a K and a T on it. So, folding Kings that time was wrong too.

Who's here after Doug folded Kings preflop tonight on the Lodge stream 😂

Yes, month and a half ago. Long story short. 850 in stack playing, 1/3. Utg make it 14, goofy cutoff limps. Button 3 bet to 50, I 4 bet to 150, goofy limper shoves for 900. Button snap calls off 300+.I tank like 3 minutes and fold. They both had AA. Insane. KK since then has been a battle. 2 weeks later same table I Have KK 3x pre 3 bettor IP 3 bets to 30 I call. Flop set. I check raise flop from 30 to 100. Turn comes A I lead 100 he shoves and when you know and call anyway for last 300 he turned set lol. More would follow but you get it.

When the straddle is ridiculous, you have to be incredibly suspicious about folding kings.. Definitely a weakness exposed in scenarios

Kings shouldn't even be a miricle laydown preflop. Lets be honest the stakes most people are playing, people are not 5 bet shoving anything but AA. The only reason everyone gets stacked isn't because they think they are not against AA and they are against someone jamming 200BB's with QQ its because for a 2 decades people have said bet the farm on KK.

Nothings better then when Fishmen folded aces preflop avoiding quads lmao. Still can’t believe this

I folded AK off to a 5bet all in preflop with Someone else already all-in for less when I was in position being on the Botton. I would of Chopped with AK off against the all-in for less had J10 suited. The Guy that had me covered was very tight and didn't 3 bet until then for the first 3 hrs he was there. I'm on the fence if it was a bad Fold.

You must always go all-in pre with KK? Of course not! But in some of these hands people could just call (when it is not an all-in situation). Especially in that hand where guys were insanely deep. It's an absolutely correct play.

folded kk pf once in my life. I knew 99.9999999% it was a great lay down. went on to win the tourney that night. I was in the zone.

Heh. It's hard to imagine a spot I'm laying down kings. Against that Jennifer tilly all in bet might be one of them. None of the others got close to meeting my qualifications. The second fold was just lucky. And if you're betting on luck you're handing me your chips. I think of it this way. Unless the read is 100% solid gold, and I've never had a read like that, live reads should be a small part of your decision. 10%. And 10% doesn't move the needle with pocket kings. People can shove all in with anything and most of the time they don't have aces.

Think I actually would have called in that A5s hand. The 5 bettor has a bit too juicy of a spot to go for it there.

Course on Back-4 betting Jacks coming soon to Upswing

Love the content rapid fire Doug! Keep it coming 🔥

Love this format!! Thanks Doug!!

1st call because it’s Tilly 2nd call he’s committed 3rd I’d have called 4th seen flop at least or all in 5th would have raised garret fold to bill tho

Only time I've done it was a misclick! Opponent then showed 8-4 offsuit too :(

I don't think I ever folded KK preflop. I'll just run into AA I guess.

Only once and it was only to a $25 bet. It was a 1 - 2 game that I played at for years. The guy played once or twice a week for maybe four months and only bet pre flop with aces. He also never gave action and I refused to give him any. He bet I laughed showed my hand and folded. A buddy of mine gave him the 25 bucks to show his hand to try to make me look like a fool. I was right and we rabbit hunted the flop. Nothing of note but my buddy peaked the turn n still to this day swears it was a K. I doubt it but even still I refuse to put money in the pot with that nit.

2:31 Justin 'I don't do handshakes people' Schwartz

Im calling. I just did the math in my head and i just about reach a call. I didnt factor in however that the opponent is Jennifer tilly, i know nothing about her, and I did sort of assume the BTN was irrelevamt

there was a loose cannon that was up 130k and folded AAs pre-flop because he just wanted to cash 130K and was right - one of the pros did catch a set on the flop -- kinda speaks words to the anything can happen, even the worst hands have a chance and in lets say the bubble should you fold AAs?

Ok listen, I'm bad at poker so I could be totally off here. But in the third hand, if I'm the big stack and he's the short stack, don't you just have to call it off KK? He's short stacked man he could be putting it in with basically fuckin anything. There are WAY more hands in his range when he's that short then when we're even right? because he's just trying to pressure me and stay in the game? again I'm bad, so please correct me if I'm wrong, but that would have been my thought. That felt like a super nitty fold imo.

At 5:16 villain does the smirk with with the outstretched lips, one of the big tells of strength covered in Zachary Elwood's "Reading Poker Tells". Opponent feigns disappointment before betting.

As the 2nd one was finishing I was saying to myself "yeah these are all before the A5s jams became fashionable"...

It’s a no brainer to shove with KK, 24/25 hands that could be considered good for all in is in bad shape against KK….. never ever folding KK pre flop